A HIGH school has revealed one of the secrets behind its exam success — the humble pastie.

Bolton’s favourite food was used to tempt pupils and their parents through the door for an evening of English revision at Turton High School.

The Bromley Cross school, one of the borough’s best performing schools, held an evening of Pasties and Poetry to raise standards.

Alice Lane, head of English, said she decided to use the pastie after realising how popular it was in the town.

However, she had to make sure they were Carrs Pasties, after pupils demanded to know what would be served up.

Mrs Lane said: “I am not from Bolton and when I started working here I found out about Bolton’s pastie obsession.

“I decided to hold a Pasties and Poetry evening as a fun idea of helping children revise for their English exams and explain to parents how they can practically help and support their children in this.”

More than 100 parents and their children turned up for the session. They tucked into pasties and enjoyed a hot drink before going back to class to take part in “family learning sessions” to help the pupils succeed.

Mrs Lane said: “The English curriculum is different to what the parents would have studied, so they can understand what their children are doing.”

Tips outlined to parents included everything from ensuring the child does the set amount of revision a week by signing a slip to digging out interesting articles and talking to them about it as well as checking for basic literacy in today’s world of “text speak”.

While in class, parents and children spoke about the books being studied and their characters.

The session went down a treat with parents and pupils. Parent Peter Miller said: “I think the evening is a great idea. It enables me to find out what my son is doing and give him a better opportunity to get through his exams.”

His son Tom, aged 15, added: “I feel fine about my dad coming into school because he knows how he can help and support me.”